Could ‘Hyperloop One’ be the gamechanger for high-speed travel? (18 Photos)

When you think of high-speed travel, what comes to mind? Bullet trains? Supersonic jets? Cats that got into your adderall and cross-engineered a bullet train into a supersonic jet?

Although we can all agree on the latter, a startup named ‘Hyperloop One’ has a plan to take all three of of those things out of the equation. Using vacuum tubes and speeds of over 700mph, they plan on turning travel that would take hours into just minutes.

2

So what exactly is a Hyperloop? Well imagine going from Dallas to theCHIVE HQ in Austin in just 12.5 minutes. According to the boys over at Hyperloop One, “Hyperloop is a new way to move people and things at airline speeds for the price of a bus ticket. It’s on-demand, energy-efficient and safe. Think: broadband for transportation.”

3

The startup recently released images of its development site (DevLoop) located just 30 minutes from Las Vegas. Currently under construction, the tube is at a length of 500 meters, but will be two miles long upon completion.

4

It’s no surprise that Hyperloop One has garnered so much attention. John and I have dealt with enough airports and can only get kicked out of so many of the five TGI Fridays in the Dallas airport, so we’re kind of banking on this becoming a reality.

5

Pictured Above: Co-founder and President Josh Giegel realizing that even if he wanted to, he could never pull a United re-accommodation at 700+ mph.

It could even make commuting to a city with an absurd cost of living a reality for many people. So what are the holdups? Hyperloop One could get you from LA to San Diego in 12 and a half minutes. To quote the late John Candy as Mr. Irv Blitzer in Cool Runnings, “I don’t care who you are, that’s lightning.”

Yeah, but can lightening run on ice?

6

Some of the biggest obstacles Hyperloop One faces don’t lie directly in the need of research and development. As former transportation secretary Anthony Foxx stated, “The airplane was pie-in-the-sky, the car was pie-in-the-sky, virtually every mode of transportation we enjoy today was at one a point pie-in-the-sky idea,” Foxx continued that, “We have to accept that there’s a stretch here. But it’s a stretch that can yield pretty significant benefits. What surface transportation mode today can get 700 miles per hour? None. There’s a huge opportunity, we just have to be willing to do what it takes to get there.”

7

While there are many tasks at hand to develop this dream of “Bae come over” “I can’t I’m in Boston” “My parents developed the hyperloop” meme a reality, here are some of the stats that if the brain power, money, and political climate align, could become a reality in terms of travel time.

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

We all wish we could beam ourselves up somewhere (or beam ourselves out of certain situations), and currently the Hyperloop is the next best thing. So the next time you’re in Las Vegas and stumble out into the desert, give a shoutout to the boys at Hyperloop One.